“Body art performance, mute, naked, raw, which investigates the metamorphosis of an individual, locked in the case of his own suffering, narrated through the process of moulting of the reptilian world”: this is how the Sara Lisanti, performer and artist from Salerno defines one of his latest creatures, “MUTA-MORFOSI”.
“MUTA-MORFOSI” is a performance where the artist leverages change and the concept of abandonment which, necessarily, is linked to the passage from one phase of one's life to another, to the change of one's being, a growth which also means leaving behind what one has been up until the moment of the “mutamorfosi”.
"This show was born in an instant. But like the instant -I suppose- in which one gives birth: a life of managing certain passions/impulses – emotions and a moment to expel. The most pulsating passion is undoubtedly that of remaining faithful to oneself, to oneself I mean, and this is something to do that requires a great deal of lucidity and -some would say- courage. I only lucidity. There is a time in which one time asks for the change to another time. Then it is time to abandon one skin to inhabit another, with all the costs of abandonment. But it is a tax that we must pay if we want to die better than we were born. I have already defined it as "debt to our essence".
Within the performance, Sara inserts elements taken from the world of reptiles, the moult that leads them to change skin, here used as a metaphor for a process that is not natural as it happens in nature for these animals, but is a thought out and desired process, born from a clear awareness that leads to a consequent act of personal revolution.
“So, narrow habitat and skin to change, I could only refer to the reptilian world, which I have known very closely, raising different species. And so I can tell you that moulting is a necessary stage of growth, independent of will, like age. Change, on the other hand, does not happen by mere passing of time: it follows the structure of suffer-I take note-change. It seems like child's play, instead it is for giants of their own pain. So MUTATION-MORPHOS is the crasis between the moult of the reptilian world, the skin change necessary when you grow, and metamorphosis, the transformation necessary when you want to evolve. Before moulting you are locked in the terrarium of your own suffering. Cage, but incubator. Stay, but go. Change, but abandonment of skin. All very… chess. And yet very natural. Therefore, lucidity is needed”.
However, personal and solitary awareness is not enough: this is why, after the initial personal effort, another figure necessarily appears on the scene.
“Then on stage there is the arrival of someone else's hand that helps in a phase of the process of transformation: we never save ourselves alone but, however much an external subject helps us, we too are served by him, so that our own work becomes our own work, in a reciprocal sense”.
A conceptual performance that changes from date to date, where theatre meets performance art, artistic installations and circus art, other disciplines that influence Sara Lisanti's work.
““MUTA-MORFOSI” was born with a promise already in its title: to change through repetitions, promising itself a show that is always -a little- different from the previous time, just like we all are, therefore to maintain the real aspect to which my performance is very much anchored. When space allows, a phase of the “mutamorfosi” is on the aerial trapeze. On stage there is also an installation of mine, as well as an alter ego, grown and changed. I won't say what!”.
“MUTA-MORFOSI” has been performed in theatres and galleries in Turin (among many Lavanderia a Vapore in Collegno, Teatro Cafè Muller, Spazio44, Interspazio etc), Bologna (Teatro del Barracano), Rome (Teatro dei Contrari, Teatro il T), Salerno (small theatre of the Giullare), Milan.
The next events are at the Milano Off Fringe Festival (from September 28th to October 1st at the Imbonati Art Hub 11 theatre), at the Catania Fringe (from October 19th to 22nd), Salerno (La Mennola theatre, December 17th) and Rome (Teatro dei Contrari, January 27th-28th).
In addition to “MUTA-MORFOSI”, Sara will be busy as a visual artist with installation works during the Turin art week at PARATISSIMA TORINO from October 31st to November 5th and, again, with an unpublished performance at THE OTHERS ART FAIR, also in Turin, from November 2nd to 5th.
Article published on 21 September 2023 - 17:03
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